{"id":75,"date":"2014-09-02T17:36:25","date_gmt":"2014-09-02T17:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/?p=75"},"modified":"2023-05-24T17:57:24","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T17:57:24","slug":"leader-of-the-band","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/2014\/09\/02\/leader-of-the-band\/","title":{"rendered":"Leader of the Band"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>by Richard Paige<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Following a <a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/3qY9L-s_uDs?list=PLWYJn6ctkE0AP8a-z0Ya-hW3kgUxa8VAR\">backstage video interview<\/a> of bandleader Ben Kitterman \u201906 before Aaron Lewis\u2019s concert in Indianapolis\u2019s Old National Centre,\u00a0<\/em>WM<em>\u00a0asked Associate Director Richard Paige\u00a0for his first impressions of the tour bus driver\u00a0turned working musician.<\/em><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>There is no more telling place than backstage; the truth\u00a0resides in the labyrinth of hallways and dressing rooms.<\/p>\n<p>You learn about performers onstage. You learn about people backstage.<\/p>\n<p>I walked into the theater with my own assumptions about Ben Kitterman \u201906 and the rock-and-roll lifestyle. I had heard about his time at Wabash, his departure from the school, and how he became a tour bus driver for Tom Petty, John Legend, Motley Crue, Ted Turner, and others. I knew that he had been driving for Aaron Lewis when the singer invited him onstage to play dobro, and that Ben had been playing with him on tour and in the recording studio ever since.<\/p>\n<p>When I met him backstage at the Old National Centre, I expected the performer. Ben gave me the truth. In three hours with Wabash staff members and a student, he proved to be an engaging, thoughtful, and insightful guy who makes others feel at home.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Strong Enough - Sheryl Crowe Cover - Aaron Lewis Turning Stone Casino February 8, 2014\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wMxUBZ-POHc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Although he is Lewis\u2019s bandleader <em>(watch Ben&#8217;s arrangement of Sheryl Crowe&#8217;s &#8220;Strong Enough&#8221; as played by Lewis and his band)<\/em> and a recording multi-instrumentalist (last year he played on the soundtrack of\u00a0<em>The Lone Ranger<\/em>), Ben acts like a driver. He washed the bus that afternoon before the sound check. He casually drops a \u201ccopy that,\u201d \u201croger,\u201d or a \u201cwhat\u2019s your 20?\u201d into conversation. His time in the driver\u2019s seat still resonates.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really a fraternal bond you have with other bus drivers,\u201d\u00a0he says. \u201cJust being on the road itself; it\u2019s like you are on a long, extended vision quest. I took a lot of pride in every bit of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Glance at the daily schedule posted on the wall (3 p.m.\u2014sound check; 9:15 p.m.\u2014on stage; 2 a.m.\u2014departure; 6:30 a.m.\u2014arrival) and the lifestyle loses its glamour. Add to the mix the lap-band surgery he had in 2012 to lose weight (to quote the Stone Temple Pilots, he\u2019s literally \u201chalf the man he used to be\u201d), and the road presents its challenges. Even so, he talks cheerfully about cooking his own meals on the bus and the rigors of shopping for one egg at a time.<\/p>\n<p>Ben took the time to talk to us, not just about Wabash, but about us. He made Luke Walker \u201915 the center of attention for a long time, discussing Spotify and Walker\u2019s musical preferences. It was one of the most memorable Wabash moments of my year, both unexpected and genuine.<\/p>\n<p>Ben was secure enough to admit that even though he\u2019s now a performer, he still seeks acceptance as a musician. \u201cI still feel like a stranger up there, which may be better than the opposite of feeling entitled,\u201d he explains. \u201cYou try to find a good vibe, a pocket where you aren\u2019t overplaying. I tend to overthink the notes I\u2019m going to play, especially if I\u2019m with someone new, and I still do that every day with Aaron.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He talked about the \u201cPersonal Identity DVD\u201d he made for Professor Warren Rosenberg\u2019s class. It celebrates his father\u2019s career driving tour buses for Neil Young and others and expresses Ben\u2019s own passion for driving. He calls it his \u201ccrowning achievement\u201d at Wabash.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve met some of the best friends I\u2019ve ever had at that school,\u201d Ben says. \u201cIt seems to attract men of good character, good qualities. I still talk to some of those folks on a daily basis.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s a musician\u2019s musician and a regular guy. Wabash is lucky to have attracted a man like Ben.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Richard Paige Following a backstage video interview of bandleader Ben Kitterman \u201906 before Aaron Lewis\u2019s concert in Indianapolis\u2019s Old National Centre,\u00a0WM\u00a0asked Associate Director Richard Paige\u00a0for his first impressions of the tour [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":76,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-class-notes"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2014\/09\/ben-and-bandlores-1024x682.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":447,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions\/447"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}